Author

Abstract

The goal for this research was to reduce the current manufacturing cost of the polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) inserts utilized in the natural gas and oil drilling industry while not reducing their current performance. Polycrystalline Diamond is added to the tungsten-carbide (WC) substrates commonly utilized in these applications because of its greater wear and thermal resistance. With the current cube cell design for the high-pressure/high-temperature apparatus, it is necessary to bond an extra WC substrate to the polycrystalline diamond insert to achieve the sizes generally ordered by the customers. The problem of bonding the extra WC substrate was solved by increasing the operating volume of the cube cell assembly and changing the heating pattern within the cell while maintaining the temperature and the pressure required for the successful diamond sintering.The new cell design was proposed and tested. The test data were captured and analyzed to prove the hypotheses. The proposed manufacturing methods resulted in reduced cost, processing time, and reduced the need for equipment and operators without diminishing the performance of the PDC insert.